Ubiquitous access to mobile technologies is expanding rapidly. In a changing world, where social work and learning activies increasingly occur 'on the go' mediated by a wide vairety of mobile devices, there is a growing expectation that these tools will be utilized for teaching and learning activities in higher education. However, along with the opportunities offered by mobile learning come concerns related to issues of privacy and security whithin classroom situations. The authors of this paper suggest that while mobile learning does indeed come with risks, there is a need to take a proactive approach to managing the ethical issues that the use of these tools in educational settings can create. Considering mobile learning as part of a transition to a more mobile society, the authours argue that ethical issues need to be considered within this social framework and that the onus is on institutions to develop protocols and policy to enable and support responsible use of mobile devices as tools to support mobile learning. Moreover, mobile devices in education should not be seen merely as a problem to be managed, but as offering the potential to enabance the agency of all learners, including those who have been disenfranchised by traditional teaching approaches.

en_US

dc.publisher

International Association for Mobile Learning

en_US

dc.relation.ispartof

Proceedings of the 10th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning

en_US

dc.relation.ispartof

World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning

en_US

dc.title

The Ethics of M-Learning: Classroom Threat or Enhanced Learner Agency?

en_US

dc.type

Conference Proceeding

utslib.location

London

en_US

utslib.location.activity

Beijing

en_US

utslib.for

080699 Information Systems Not Elsewhere Classified

en_US

dc.location.activity

Beijing

en_US

pubs.embargo.period

Not known

en_US

pubs.organisational-group

/University of Technology Sydney

pubs.organisational-group

/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology

pubs.organisational-group

/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Software

Ubiquitous access to mobile technologies is expanding rapidly. In a changing world, where social work and learning activies increasingly occur 'on the go' mediated by a wide vairety of mobile devices, there is a growing expectation that these tools will be utilized for teaching and learning activities in higher education. However, along with the opportunities offered by mobile learning come concerns related to issues of privacy and security whithin classroom situations. The authors of this paper suggest that while mobile learning does indeed come with risks, there is a need to take a proactive approach to managing the ethical issues that the use of these tools in educational settings can create. Considering mobile learning as part of a transition to a more mobile society, the authours argue that ethical issues need to be considered within this social framework and that the onus is on institutions to develop protocols and policy to enable and support responsible use of mobile devices as tools to support mobile learning. Moreover, mobile devices in education should not be seen merely as a problem to be managed, but as offering the potential to enabance the agency of all learners, including those who have been disenfranchised by traditional teaching approaches.